Universality and Particularity

A pair of categories in philosophy that reflects the commonality and the individuality of things and their relationship. Universality refers to the commonality of same kind of things, while particularity refers to the individuality of a concrete thing different from other things. Everything has universality and particularity, and universality and particularity is a relation of unity of opposites. On the one hand, to a certain extent, the boundaries between universality and particularity are clearly defined and cannot be confused. The individuality of a concrete thing and the commonality of being the same as other things are definitely not the same thing. On the other hand, the two are interdependent and inextricably linked. There is no universality without particularity, universality can only exist within particularity and it can only exist through particularity. There is universality in any particularity, and any universality includes, more or less, every particularity. Moreover, under certain conditions, universality and particularity can transform into each other. What is a particularity under one condition may become a universality under another, and vice versa. For example, the hardness of a stone is different from the softness of a modeling clay which is its particularity; but in its relation to iron or steel, hardness is its universality. Marxism holds that, starting out from the dialectical relation between particularity and universality, human knowledge always begins with the particularity of things and gradually expands to know the universality of things. Engels said: “In fact all real, exhaustive knowledge consists solely in raising the single thing in thought from singularity into particularity and from this into universality.” Human knowledge always first raises the particularity into universality and from this, guided by universality, delves into various concrete things that are not yet known or not known deeply enough, thus supplements, enriches and develops the knowledge of universality. To move first from particularity to universality, and then from universality to particularity, are the two processes of knowledge. The human knowledge thus repeats itself in cycles, rising in spirals, until infinity.